all been removed."

Marguerite thanked him with a smile as she said:--

"My savings will now come in play! Martha, we must begin to-morrow on
Gabriel's outfit. My poor Felicie, we shall have to work hard," she
added, kissing her sister's forehead.

"To-morrow you shall have him at home, to remain ten days," said
Emmanuel; "he must be in Paris by the fifteenth of November."

"My cousin Gabriel has done a sensible thing," said the lawyer, eyeing
the professor from head to foot; "for he will have to make his own way.
But, my dear cousin, the question now is how to save the honor of the
family: will you listen to what I say this time?"

"No," she said, "not if it relates to marriage."

"Then what will you do?"

"I?--nothing."

"But you are of age."

"I shall be in a few days. Have you any course to suggest to me," she
added, "which will reconcile our interests with the duty we owe to our
father and to the honor of the family?"

"My dear cousin, nothing can be done till your uncle arrives. When he
does, I will call again."

"Adieu, monsieur," said Marguerite.

"The poorer she is the more airs she gives herself," thought the notary.
"Adieu, mademoiselle," he said aloud. "Monsieur, my respects to you";
and he went away, paying no attention to Felicie or Martha.

"I have been studying the Code for the last two days, and I have
consulted an experienced old lawyer, a friend of my uncle," said
Emmanuel, in a hesitating voice. "If you will allow me, I will go
to Amsterdam to-morrow and see Monsieur Conyncks. Listen, dear
Marguerite--"

He uttered her name for the first time; she thanked him with a smile and
a tearful glance, and made a gentle inclination of her head. He paused,
looking at Felicie and Martha.

"Speak before my sister," said Marguerite. "She is so docile and
courageous that she does not need this discussion to make her resigned
to our life of toil and privation; but it is best that she should see
for herself how necessary courage is to us."

The two sisters clasped hands and kissed each other, as if to renew some
pledge of union before the coming disaster.

"Leave us, Martha."

"Dear Marguerite," said Emmanuel, letting the happiness he felt in
conquering the lesser rights of affection sound in the inflections of
his voice, "I have procured the names and addresses of the purchasers
who still owe the remaining two hundred thousand francs on the felled
timber. To-morrow, if you give consent, a l